Mother And Child – an opera in one act
     Libretto by Ron Whyte
     Music by Lee McClure

Film of staged reading
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC
Premiere performance, May 23, 1990
Film with credits and subtitles produced and directed by Lee McClure
© 2013 Lee McClure, all rights reserved

         Cast:
Judi Silvano – soprano – role: Angelina
Linda LoPresti – mezzo-soprano – role: Mother #2 (Greek chorus)
Holly Durniak –contralto –role: Mother #3 (Greek chorus)
Cynthia Izzo – babysitter (non-speaking), chorus member – role: Julia
         Artistic Staff:
Bill Grossman, music director, conductor
Stephen McCabe, stage director
Liz Goodall, props designer
         Musicians:
Mike Finkel, David Runnion – cellos
Neil Swanson, Christopher Vassiliades – 4-hand-piano
         Film Editor, Audio Editor, Postproduction, Graphics: titles, subtitles, montages
Brian O’Neill
        Videography:
Vernita Nemec, Tequila Minsky


SYNOPSIS:
 Angelina, a poor Italian mother, returns home to her newborn baby. The babysitter, Julia, refuses to look at the baby because the neighbors say the child has the "evil eye". Angelina throws the babysitter out.

Angelina moves a large statue of the Virgin Mary to the kitchen table and appeals to her for help. She describes her life leading up to the birth of her baby girl. Acting as a Greek chorus, Mother-2 and Mother-3 join Angelina in singing about the health and beauty of the baby girl, but end by revealing that the baby has no legs or fingers.

Mother-2 and 3 take on the voice of the doctor who says sometimes these babies die. Angelina considers whether her baby would be better off dead. Desperately seeking a sign from the Virgin, Angelina receives none, and hysterically attacks the statue of the Madonna.

All music stops when the baby quietly coughs. Angelina runs to her baby and sings her a lullaby. Returning to the Madonna, she gently cries while holding the statue. In her despair she experiences an epiphany and envisions how to save her baby. She cleans the table, returns the broken pieces of the Madonna to her niche, flings open the windows, and yells "Help! Call a priest! There's been a miracle!" 

Neighbors crowd into the room. She explains that the Virgin has made herself like her baby girl, that this is a sign the Virgin loves her baby.  The opera ends with all singing "Let this baby live!"

     The complete libretto, score and parts are available at: https://archive.org/details/MotherAndChildScoreAndLibretto_201904/mode/2up

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

The librettist RON WHYTE is regarded as "the most original American dramatic voice since Edward Albee" (David Richards, The Washington Post). With a focus on disability that is "taut and tough and cleaves the air of hypocrisy" (Clive Barnes, The New York Times) the plays of Ron Whyte contain dramatic conflicts that have a recognized history of drawing all audiences into reflection. In addition to being an internationally recognized playwright, Ron Whyte was involved in political activism, which included serving on President Nixon's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, as well as on the panel which drafted Section #504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act, the sweeping law which for the first time granted civil rights to people with disabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Whyte

LEE McCLURE is possibly the most melodic composer of classical music in the last 50 years . JoAnn Falletta (Buffalo Philharmonic) has written about Lee’s Symphony No.1: “I listened and found it to be a really beautiful work. I am happy to have it and look forward to studying it” (2015).   His orchestral piece Hiatus was declared as "the most distinguished piece on the program: the harmonies had bite and the musical ideas seemed both organic and Mr. McClure's own" (Tim Page, The New York Times, 1986). In 1985 in New York City Lee founded the Eclectix Chamber Orchestra which has presented the music of more than 130 living composers. Eclectix has stirred controversy by championing new music that is not minimal or atonal. The New York Times has written: “Devoted to Melody: Eclelctix, a group dedicated to presenting melodic music in the tradition of Debussy, Gershwin, and Ellington performs in New York (1989). “Most of this repertory grew out of a tonal, melody-accompaniment tradition, and a lot of it by way of American popular culture" (1988).

contact:  https://www.eclectixnyc.org/     eclectix@earthlink.net

Timeline: (duration: 48 minutes)

0:00  title credits                    25:55 Now you are human
0:28  about the opera             27:10 Where is the sign?
1:15  How's the baby?            29:01 My poor baby
5:32  transition                       31:16 Every baby is beautiful
7:14  When I was a girl          33:12 Why am I such a fool?
8:54  My husband                  34:35 transition
11:33 Beautiful soul               35:16 Help! Call a priest
13;07 My baby has no legs    36:31 Her arms, her feet
14:36 She smiles                    38:05 This is a sign
16:06 We are all Italian         40:22 I promise to love my baby
17:20 Even the men               44:27 Hail Mary full of grace
19:30 The doctor says            45:44 She looked down
22:03 You don't answer          46:30 end credits
24:09 You shall not        

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